Keeping communities thriving
We’ve been serving local communities since our first shop opened in 1844, and now have a store or branch in every postal area of the UK. Along with offering a range of quality goods and services, we're committed to seeing communities prosper. We want to ensure that everyone, no matter where they live or what their financial situation, can access quality products and services without an ethical compromise.
And we’re committed to offering additional support to those communities, through a variety of projects and initiatives, from training urban beekeepers, to investing in community-led co-operatives. In fact, we invest four times more of our profits in the community than the average high street retailer. But we don’t stop there – as a co-operative, we work with our members to address their communities’ needs, including making small grants, through The Community Fund, to support thousands of community revolutions.
As part of our new revolutionary Ethical Operating Plan:
• We will continue to be socially inclusive, seeking to have a physical presence in every postal area in the UK, and will increase our number of stores by 300 by 2013.
• Ensure that 10% of the profits available for distribution is made available for community investment by 2013, with £5m deployed per annum to tackle UK poverty around our stores and branches.
• Our stores and branches will act as a focus for 10,000 community initiatives per annum.
• We will grow our UK farming business further and aim to supply a quarter of all fresh produce sold in our stores by 2015, whilst at the same time helping secure the future of priority species in our locales.
Find out more - Join the Revolution.
Find out more about some of our community projects, by clicking the links below:
See how your community has benefited.
Apply for support from one of our funds and foundations.
Download our Good for the Community report.